Editor’s note: This story replaces a previous version which reported on an Instagram post that depicted a funny email from a teacher. In this interview, the mom who created the post, Jenny Mollen, admitted that she made up the “email” in her social media post.
Jenny Mollen has confessed that she made up a now-infamous email exchange between herself and her son’s teacher about eating “tons of penis.”
Last month, cookbook author Mollen, 43, who is married to actor Jason Biggs, posted on Instagram what appeared to be a conversation between herself and her 8-year-old son’s teacher.
In an interview with TODAY Parents on Nov. 17, she said that the conversation never really happened.
“Dear Ms. Biggs,” the note read. “Today in school your son shared with his classmates that you are in Copenhagen on an adult trip and have been eating (pardon my language) ‘tons of penis.’”
The next slide featured what appeared to be Mollen’s humorous response.
Mollen concluded the post with a photo of a tasting menu from Noma, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark. Circled in pink was “Reindeer penis ragout.”
While Mollen said she did in fact enjoy reindeer penis ragout at Noma, she told TODAY Parents in an interview that she never actually corresponded with her son’s third grade teacher.
She also noted her husband’s reaction to the viral post.
“Jason was so mad. He was like, ‘Jenny, I was at school and everybody was asking me about the email,’ and I said, ‘Jason, I’m just sitting at home bulls-------,’” Mollen told TODAY on Nov. 17.
Mollen said that Biggs then compared her to disgraced author James Frey, who admitted to altering and embellishing details in his 2003 memoir “A Million Little Pieces.”
“The dish happened to be delicious, by the way,” Mollen said. “It was sort of seedy and rice-y. I didn’t even know what I was eating until after I saw the menu. They don’t tell you.”
“Then I asked, ‘What part of the reindeer was that? It looked like little pieces of calamari or something. And they said, ‘That was a penis,’” she continued. “I thought that was so funny, so I told (my son).”
Mollen said the email exchange she fabricated was how she imagined a conversation between herself and the teacher would have unfolded.
“I was killing myself laughing as I was writing it,” Mollen said. Her Instagram post went viral and was picked up by outlets across the globe.
Mollen, who shares kid-friendly lunches on Instagram, opened up to TODAY while promoting her partnership with Egglife Foods.
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